I’ve been painting Maine!  Knowing that I’ll have paintings in a gallery in Blue Hill and also that ArtBlend wants New England scenes for the Art Hamptons Art Fair in July is giving me a lot of energy to paint!  Stonington Blues is based on a photo I took this summer. I saw  and filmed this house and wharf building from many angles, but I liked this one best. I love the idea of peaking around a corner and seeing the house, truck and shed. There was a deck attached to the building at left that was covering much of the house. Fortunately, I had another shot of it that revealed what the house looked like. I simplified the foreground by removing the deck and a lot of litter in the “yard”!  I began the picture with a hard pastel and alcohol underpainting, using oranges, browns, and some violets underneath. I used orange in the sky and left small pieces of it showing through. I warmed up the roof of the house with reds, but kept the roof of the shed as it was (loved it!).  What I really love are the different colors of the blue house and more teal-colored shed. The sky, background islands, and water added additions blues and blue greens. I used a dark blue for the deepest shadows among the rocks and the base of the house. I limited violets to the roofs and parts of the water and white building at left. The yellow flowers at the bottom added an important touch of color.

Stonington Blues, 24 x 18, Pastelbord